Maher Funeral Home opens in former Tinley Park Public Library

Maher Funeral Home is now open in the former Tinley Park library.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

A new funeral home has opened in the former Tinley Park Public Library building at 7051 W. 171st St.

"We received our occupancy permit last week," said Phil Maher, co-owner of the new Maher Funeral Home.

Maher said the funeral home is a family affair with his business partner and brother John Maher providing elder care and other legal services for their clients, his sister Julia Maher Dombrowski handling public relations and an uncle Robert Maher taking care of community outreach for the business.

Phil Maher has been in the funeral business for 24 years and spent many of those years learning from his late mentor Andrew J. McGann Sr., who operated a funeral home in Chicago's Mount Greenwood community.

"I started with him when I was 19 years old," said Maher.

Maher said he struck out on his own more than a year ago and spent a lot of that time looking for the right location for his own funeral home.

"We found the library in January and spent the last several months remodeling the building," he said. 

"We liked the space that was available and the location and the fact it had parking for more than 100 cars."

The building has two 14,000-square-foot levels and the funeral home is on the main floor. It was built in 1973 and served as the Tinley library until it moved into a new location in 2004.

"We're waiting to see about the lower level," Maher said. "We're not sure if it will offices or storage."

As for the main level, Maher said they kept the library's large windows in the front because of the view they offered. They also did extensive landscaping work to the site.

"We have too large parlors that can combined into one massive parlor, if needed," he said. "Each parlor has its own coffee room and each parlor has its own outdoor seating area. I wanted to make sure they were separate, to be more accommodating for the families."

Maher said village officials were very happy to have the family buy the building.

"It had been vacant for many years," he said. "Even the neighbors are thrilled to finally have the building open again."

Maher said the community was invited to check out the new building at its open house from 3-8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20.

For more information, call 708-781-9212 or visit the funeral home website.

Jersey Mike's opens in Palos Heights

Southwest suburban fans of Jersey Mike's sub sandwiches won't have as far to go to get their fill, now that the East Coast-based food chain has opened in Palos Height. The next closest location had been in Orland Park.

Owner Mac Shimmon opened his latest Jersey Mike's recently at 12801 S. Harlem Ave. in Palos Heights in a former Foot Locker shoe store. 

It's the third new business in the former shoe store. A Lou Malnati's pizzeria opened there in September and a Great Clips hair salon opened in November.

It is the 12th Jersey Mike's franchise for Shimmon, who opened his first location in Orland Park in June 2011. He now owns Jersey Mike's in New Lenox, Frankfort, Elk Grove Village, Gurnee, Schaumburg, Glenview, Niles, Park Ridge and Buffalo Grove.

 “I am so excited to bring the Jersey Mike’s brand to Palos Heights,” said Shimmon in a release. 

Fans of the sandwich say you can feel the difference when compared to other submarine sandwich offerings.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. 

For information, call 708-671-8748.

Tinley Kmart adopts K-fresh format

Kmart has reconfigured its Tinley Park store at 16300 S. Harlem Ave. from a Super Kmart into a new format the chain calls K-fresh.

The Hoffman Estates-based retailer is changing most of its remaining Super Kmarts into the new format, which includes the removal of its butcher, bakery and deli food service departments.

The new format also includes less sales floor space, reduced operating hours fewer staff.

The company said least five of its remaining 11 Super Kmart stores would be converted. The Tinley store was the only one in Illinois.

K-fresh stores have replaced the service departments with prepackaged items, and offer reduced brand variety and pack sizes.

Store hours have been cut from 24 hours to 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. 

If you see a new business in town or wonder what happened to an old favorite, drop me a line at bobbong@hotmail.com.

You can also catch up on Comings & Goings in other parts of the Southland at www.southlandbusinessnews.com.